Saintspyre

Saint Cuthbert and the Beast

Deep beneath the waves of the Theylean Ocean, the Great Beast stirred from its centuries of slumber. Whether from hunger, or anger, or some ancient and forgotten curse, the monstrosity cut a swath of destruction across the continent of Eluvenar. It seemed no one could stand against it. An avatar of destruction, mortality personified, was risen from the depths and unleashed upon a world, woefully unprepared to defend itself.

Harried at every turn, the monstrous Tarrasque turned from its eastward march and headed south – perhaps seeking the safety of the Sothron Sea. At the mouth of Four Rivers, the lip of the Iron Cliffs, six mortals, bravely faced the charging titan abomination.

Shaunti was the first to fall, whether victim of her own magics or the claws and teeth of the Great Beast remains a mystery. It is said her corpse fell from the Iron Cliffs, and that her spirit watches over the sailors of make Four Rivers their home.

After Shaunti, the assassin fell to the titan’s rage, destroyed so utterly that none of his flesh was ever recovered. Mal was the next to fall. The kobold died defending the Elmstar as she unleashed her last attack, before she too went on to her eternal reward.

Now there were two. Greyflesh and Algood. Two lone mortals, locked in battle with the monstrous creature, no hope of victory, no chance of success, their lives thrown away and for nothing. The Tarrasque would survive.

Cuthbert was injured. A grievous wound, such that no tale agrees on how he was wounded, nor whether he even survived the batlle. But the Greyflesh fought on, and in the end – it was the Mace of Saint Cuthbert that delivered the killing blow. And the death of the Great Beast rocked the very earth on which it fell, shattering the Iron Cliffs and changing the nature of the landscape itself.

Cuthbert and the Duergar monk walked from the corpse of the Monster, across the island now known as Godswalk, and at the high plain, where now stands the Basilica of Cuthbert’s Rest, they collapsed together and mourned their fallen allies.